blue dragongirl has gathered devotees from across the desert to attend her in her mud brick palace on this lazy floodplain. now a small city sprawls around her, mosaics of her image in turquoise and lapis lazuli decorating the walls that enclose neighborhoods, farmland, mud pits and vineyards. under her tutelage, her followers have learned the smelting of ore into metal, the fusing of sand into glass, the fermentation of grapes into wine, the souring of wine into vinegar, and finally the marriage of copper and iron with vinegar in glass jars to produce primitive batteries and share in a small measure of her fulminous power. now, during the festival of the winter solstice, the dragongirl is presented with the fruits of human labor: vinegar-marinated goat and bread soaked in wine, two dozen bongs in swirling dream-colors and a small pile of gold-electroplated bangles. "this is pretty cool," she says, "but i was hoping for like. an xbox. and some salt and vinegar chips. when do you think you could have that by?"